Heading to a cardiologist.....

If you have the Apple Watch 4 please please update to the new firmware released yesterday and take your ECG.

I did last night and tried it out. Weird. Abnormal heat rate notifications. Ran the ECG app and came back afib. Well...glitchy firmware. Let’s try again. Afib. Again and again and again. Piece of crap watch.

My wife wakes up and I put it on her. Normal. Normal. Me afib. Try the other wrist, try the underside of the wrist. Every time afib warning.

Ok. So go to Patient First. Parking lot full and I’m going to blow it off and head home. Look at the watch again, afib again.

Fine walk in and sign in. They ask what’s wrong and I’m embarrassed. ‘Ok so there is a new watch feature....hahaha....I’m silly but can we check this?”

I did not know that this comment was a quick queue pass for Patient First. I’m taken right back and hooked up. The technician looks at the screen and says “I’m going to get the doctor”

Doctor comes in, looks at the screen, looks at me and says “You should buy Apple stock. This probably saved you. I read about this last night and thought we would see an upswing this week. I didn’t expect it first thing this morning.”

Soooo long story short, heading to a cardiologist right now.

Test yourself. I didn’t have a clue. I may not ever have.

EDIT - Folks asked, so below are 2 of the exports from Health and a section of the ECG that was run at the doctor for comparison.

Update - A quick update as folks have asked. We ran over to see the cardiologist who fit me in. He did a short exam, reviewed the earlier ECG, confirmed the afib diagnosis, and did a ultrasound of my heart. I’m scheduled to go back in a week for some additional tests to start looking at the cause… blood, thyroid, etc… He also scheduled me with a partner who specializes more in the electrical side of things to have it looked from that angle as well.

As for today? They sent me home with a Dilitiazem prescription. This morning the heart-rate is finally down from the 120-140 range and in the 75-90 range and pressure still elevated around 125/80. Far better than yesterday but not sure if that is the medicine or just a day’s perspective but we’ll see.

Thank you so much for all the kind words and shared experiences! For now off to breakfast, Tae Kwon Do with the family, and then some holiday shopping.

UPDATE 2 - A national morning show filmed a segment at our house tonight. If they use any of the B-real footage all I can say is:

1 - It’s been a long stressful weekend. Telling your wife she has 2 hours before a film crew is showing up at the house is NOT conducive to LOW stress.

2 - Showing us playing a game as a family seemed like a great idea at the time.

3 - My daughter picked Ticket To Ride Junior.

4 - We do know how to play the game. It’s been a stress weekend (also see #1). You will see dumb moves if they show anything don’t judge us.

UPDATE 3 - Echocardiagram results came back tonight: “Your EF (ejection fraction) is around 50%. ” Which is a little low apparently, or just at the bottom of normal. Also my “atrial size was mild to moderately increased in size”. Waiting to find out what that means in the real world.

Final update - Cardioverted this morning and all is perfect again. Checking out sleep clinics for the potential that apnea caused this.

For all that negative that gets said about Reddit, folks here were far kinder and more supportive than I’d ever would have imagined! Thank you so much for all of the kind words, support, and information!

This is the correct response for anyone worried about their ECG/heartrate results. OP, thanks for taking it seriously and going to the doctor instead of just posting here asking for unqualified advice. Anyone else in the similar boat, you know what to do!

Triple bypass. Implanted pacemaker / defibrillator, a gazillion ekgs, xrays, cat scans, etc. Out of pocket, $0. Regular two month checks with family MD and annual check up with cardiologist. $0. Travel costs (plus parking and meals) to get to these appointments are tax deductible. Benefits package at work covers 100% of meds.

I don't think that's really a perfect example. Many other places around the world have access to leading doctors, equipment and care and pay for its development. The US market isn't solely subsidizing the development of new drugs, but I do agree, the US does pay dearly for their care. I think that's mainly because that's the way the market is structured there rather than an indicator of higher quality care. Health care providers and companies have a pretty large scope in the US to price gouge and patients seem pretty powerless to challenge the prices they are charged.

When people talk of free health care I think it's pretty misleading. Of course the health care is paid for and it's not cheap but that cost is borne by the entire of society and spread out over a lifetime - having a large buying power and a vested interest in the patient rather than stockholders seems to be a better recipe for lower costs.

I got some healthcare done in Germany when I was there. Hospital for 7 days and a surgery and it was €70 total. (I was paying €55/mo insurance while staying there). It was awesome. There wasn’t any waiting either for me anyway. The drs offices and the hospital.

Hah! You're just brainwashed. You think you have good healthcare because you can see doctors when you need to and you don't have to pay out of pocket and drug prices are reasonable; you've just been indoctrinated to believe that those are good things when in reality your government healthcare is probably going to kill you when you're about eighty years old. Sucker!

I had strep a few months ago and it was about the same, $250. The worst fucking part is I work for a diagnostic company that makes strep tests, so I already knew I had it, but still had to pay out the ass for them to run the test that my company probably made for less than 10 cents.